Slice of New York at architect-designed home in Wright

When an architect designs their own home, it’s a unique opportunity to create a building of self expression without the constraints of a second party.

For architect Veronika Lisman it presented the prospect of designing a liveable house for her family, with free rein over attention-grabbing features.

The result was a five-bedroom New York-style loft with an industrial vibe.

“Our brief was a comfortable and practical, spatially-exciting family home,” Veronika says.

Inspiration for the house in Wright began with a central grassed courtyard surrounded by an edgy home interior of sleek curves, rich tones and bold accents.

“We celebrated saturated colour and texture throughout the house,” Veronika says.

“Exposed brick, black-painted steel, concrete and timber have been contrasted with punches of yellow, which works so well with black. Yellow refreshes the overall space.”

Veronika and husband Jarred shared design ideas to create their industrial glam home.

“The house only took a few months to design as the ideas had been simmering for both of us for some time before we bought the block,” Veronika says.

The Lismans say they wouldn’t change a thing about their home that was completed two years ago.

“We have loved the central courtyard space, the green that gets reflected from this area into the house is beautiful and is only going to get better as the garden establishes itself,” Veronika says.

“It has been wonderful to throw open all the doors to the courtyard and let the outside in when we are having a party or simply enjoying good weather.”

The house has three levels, spacious outdoor entertaining areas and views to Parliament House. It also has ducted reverse-cycle heating and cooling, double-glazed windows and solar hot water.

No. 10 Lacewing Street, Wright, will be auctioned on Saturday, June 18 through One Agency agent Andrew Thorpe. Inspect: Saturday, 1pm-1.45pm and Wednesday, 5.15pm-6pm. Price guide: $960,000+. EER: 5.

Owners honour character

A home’s integrity can be eroded when many owners put their stamp on it with serial renovations.

So Catherine Garner is grateful that previous owners of her Deakin home took a considered approach when updating the elegant English manor-style property.

“Each owner has showed the house a lot of love and respect when they have renovated it and the result is a seamless look throughout,” Catherine says.

“The entire interior has been updated with the new retro-fitted to the old.”

Catherine says her family has not had to make any changes to the property since buying it eight years ago.

“A lot of time and effort has been taken to maintain the character of the home,” Catherine says.

“We walked in the door and it was perfect, it was like a beautiful piece of the Cotswolds in Canberra.”

The house, which was built in 1955, has four spacious bedrooms, four new bathrooms and an attic retreat.

The property also features high ceilings, two fireplaces, ducted gas heating, split system cooling, wooden floors and a security alarm.

It has a double garage and mature garden on a 1317-square-metre block.

No. 4 Northcote Crescent, Deakin is being auctioned on Saturday, June 11, through Peter Blackshaw Real Estate Manuka agents Andrew Chamberlain and Alec Brown. Price guide: $1.8 million. Inspect: Contact the agent. EER: 0.